Louisville council selects firm for water project

LOUISVILLE  The Town Council has awarded a contract for the construction of a new water district to Marcellus Construction, Adams, with work expected to begin in May.

Town Supervisor Larry R. Legault said the firms total bid of $6,286,740 also includes an alternate bid of $97,600 that will include connecting all of the projects laterals to the water main.

The bid also leaves the town with a contingency budget of $1,064,260, enough to bring water to the residents of Whalen and Patterson roads.

With that contingency, were also hoping to lay more pipe and include Whalen and Patterson roads, Mr. Legault said, adding the additional work isnt guaranteed and is pending the approval of the state Environmental Facilities Corp., the agency funding the project.

The way the bids came in, its looking pretty good for being able to continue the project, Mr. Legault said. Tim (Project Engineer Timothy Burley of C2AE, Canton) has checked with the funding agency, and they just need to look over the bid documents and give us the final approval.

Mr. Legault also said the town would seek its attorneys approval before modifying the project to include the additional roads.

Should the additional work be approved, he said roughly 85 percent of the town will have municipal water service.

I think our next goal will be to continue past Steves Stop & Shop onto Mein Road and into Chase Mills, where we could then come back down County Route 39 and complete the loop, he said.

The reason for being able to include additional work was the boards decision to use PVC pipe rather than ductal iron for the water mains.

If we would have used ductal iron, the contingency would have only been $484,075, he said, which is not enough to include Whalen and Patterson roads.

The fact PVC was cheaper wasnt the only factor that went into the decision.

The town board did their homework, Mr. Legault said. We researched ductal iron and PVC, and it was unanimous to go with PVC.

Among the benefits of PVC pipe are less friction through the pipe, easier installation, easier repair and lower price.

It is being used in a lot of new water projects, Mr. Legault said, adding Mr. Burley has said their firm has used it several times.

Mr. Legault said hes optimistic work will begin sometime in May, meaning some district residents will have municipal water service within the next four to five months.

If they get started in May, probably by mid-summer some people will start to see their water turned on, he said.

Mr. Legault said hes not sure where the contractor will begin once work gets started, but hes anticipating there will be multiple crews working each day.

I would imagine that with a project of this size there will be multiple starting points, but that hasnt been determined yet, he said.

Mr. Legault also said he realizes district residents have waited a long time for municipal water service.

They have been very patient, he said. Now they know we have a project to start and we can provide them with municipal water, which has been a long time coming for these people.

The original boundaries for the water district encompassed uncovered portions of Willard Road.

Service also began at the towns office complex and continued along State Route 37 to Steves Gas before turning down County Route 39 into the hamlet of Louisville and expanding onto the Thompson Ridge Road to State Route 56, ending at the Norfolk town line.

The district will also extend onto West Hatfield Street, wrapping around Route 37 and back to Route 56, where it will also include several Norfolk residents.

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